Abstract: "The Programa Bolsa Família (PBF) currently serves 13.8 million Brazilian families—corresponding to the poorest 25 per cent of the population—combining cash transfers with conditionalities met by the beneficiaries. Funds are transferred directly to beneficiaries, who can then withdraw them using a bank debit card. The programme is aimed at extremely poor families (monthly per capita household income of up to BRL85.00) regardless of family composition, and poor families (monthly per capita household income of between BRL85.01 and BRL170.00) if they include children and adolescents aged 0–17 years. The PBF includes a few benefits, but, in short, it transfers the necessary funds to extremely poor households so that each and every family member may overcome the extreme poverty threshold (BRL85/month). Poor families, in turn, receive so-called 'variable benefits'—BRL39 per child or adolescent aged 0–15 years and pregnant or nursing women, limited to five benefits per household— and a variable benefit for adolescents of BRL46 per adolescent aged 16–17 and attending school, limited to three benefits per household. The average monthly benefit is approximately BRL182 (as of July 2016)". (…)